Gorbachev Gets His Way In Fight With Lithuania

April 06, 1990|By Thom Shanker, Chicago Tribune.

MOSCOW — The Lithuanian parliament, overruling die-hard separatists, sent President Mikhail Gorbachev a conciliatory resolution Thursday agreeing to his demand that the Soviet Constitution play a role in talks on independence.

The action, reinforced by a statement by the republic`s envoy in Moscow that a referendum on independence is acceptable, may represent a major step toward resolving the 4-week-old crisis.

The parliament spent the past two days in heated debate before adopting the milder of two proposals on how to respond to Gorbachev`s warning that

``grave consequences`` could flow from Lithuania`s campaign for secession from the USSR.

Gorbachev has maintained unwaveringly that a referendum is required in any republic that wishes to secede and that negotiations on statehood must comply with Soviet law.

The Lithuanian lawmakers said they were ``prepared to discuss through dialogue`` their March 11 declaration of independence ``from the point of view of international law and the USSR Constitution as well.``

Earlier in the day, debate reached a crescendo when hard-liners argued that ``no way should the Soviet Constitution apply to Lithuania any longer,`` according to Edward Tuskenis, a spokesman for the parliament.

Calling for negotiations promptly, the parliament made it clear there was no plan to revoke the independence declaration. In an unmistakable allusion to Lithuania`s forced annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940, the legislators said:

``You know that the problem of Lithuania has not been created by Lithuania. Lithuania is only realizing its basic right.``

The message to Moscow contained a barbed reference to ``the willful actions`` of the Soviet armed forces, which have built up an ominous presence in recent weeks in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

On Thursday, about 50 armed Soviet soldiers dressed as police and carrying boxes of ammunition invaded the office of the Lithuanian chief prosecutor, the Baltic republic`s highest law-enforcement official. Witnesses said the soldiers forced employees outside and occupied the building.

Henrika Pocei, a secretary, said by phone from Vilnius that the men

``fully occupied the building, and there are six or eight paratroopers on each floor dressed as police officers.``

It was not clear whether the parliament was aware of that development as it put the final touches on a document notable for its diplomatic tone.

``We realize that Lithuania`s determination to rejoin the family of independent states creates concerns for the Soviet Union and you personally,`` the lawmakers wrote Gorbachev.

The message addressed him as ``deeply esteemd president,`` an honorific, somewhat archaic form indicating respect but carrying less weight than it would in the West.

Praising Gorbachev for his efforts to avoid all-out confrontation, the parliament nonetheless said his adamant stance has raised questions that needed to be clarified by ``honest dialogue.``

The vote in Vilnius came as Egidius Bickauskas, chief of the Lithuanian mission in Moscow, told the official Tass news agency that a vote on secession is acceptable.

Bickauskas, a 35-year-old lawyer who has been Lithuania`s Moscow representative since Monday, said the republic ``does not rule out the idea of holding of a referendum in Lithuania about its secession from the USSR,`` Tass reported.

Lithuania is ready for compromise, Bickauskas said, and the republic`s leadership ``may offer more than the center expects.``

The concessions from Lithuania bring the rebel republic closer to the position of Gorbachev and the Supreme Soviet, or inner parliament, which approved a tough new law on secession this week.

It requires approval of independence by two-thirds of a republic`s voters as a precondition to a five-year period of negotiations with Moscow on political and economic questions.

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis had maintained earlier that this was unnecessary because of the overwhelmingly pro-independence vote in the elections that seated parliament members.

Bickauskas said the most ``explosive situation`` in the tense standoff with Moscow is the annual spring military draft, but he said Lithuania ``is ready to look for a compromise.``

At least 250 of the republic`s young men deserted their Soviet army units after the March 11 decree, prompting Moscow to order an elite team of paratroopers to arrest them.

Bickauskas said his main task now is ``establishing a dialogue`` with authorities in Moscow. A three-person negotiating team returned to Vilnius Wednesday after their requests for meetings were refused by the Soviet ministers of defense and the interior.

But the Lithuanian representatives did spend three hours speaking with Aleksandr Yakovlev, a Gorbachev confidante on the Communist Party Politburo and the new presidential council.

In his first comments on the meeting, Yakovlev told Tass he considered the talks to be ``unofficial`` but that they were ``frank from both sides.``